一種新的會(huì)計(jì)文化.doc

外文文獻(xiàn)翻譯原文：A New Accounting CultureBut no matter how small a minority caused the problems, all of us in the accounting profession are working to solve them. To begin with, we were “present at the creation” of many of the reform ideas that were recently embraced by law. We helped develop the proposal for a board to oversee auditors of public companies, an idea that evolved into the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. We called for a requirement that auditors be hired by the boards audit committee, not management. We agreed with a prohibition on those who audit public companies from consulting in two key areas: financial systems design and implementation, and internal audit outsourcing. And we created a public-interest test against which all reforms could be measured: Will it help investors make informed investment decisions? Will it enhance audit quality and the quality of financial reporting? Will it help restore confidence in the capital markets, our nations financial reporting system and the accounting profession? Will it be good for Americas financial markets and economic growth? But weve looked beyond legislation. Weve engaged in a long and serious process of introspection at the AICPA over what went wrong and what must be done to make it right. Let there be no doubt: Hundreds of thousands of members of the CPA profession say “no” every day. “No” means protecting the public interest by rejecting unsound corporate accounting practices. “No” means reducing the risk of deceit and fraud. “No” means ensuring that audited statements are not just accurate, but illuminating. “No” means questioning and challenging management. When justified, it means rejecting managements accounting decisions. Saying “no” means saying “yes” to protecting the public interest. Only if auditors are fully prepared to say “no” will investors be fully prepared to say “yes.” “No” is not always easy to say. But obscured by the recent focus on our profession is the fact that auditors say it every day. These stories rarely come to light because an auditor prevails on clients to do the right thing. Every day, an auditor is telling a corporate executive what must be disclosed, why an item cant be treated in a certain manner or why a certain activity must be shown on the balance sheet. Every year, members of the AICPA collectively conduct almost 17,000 audits of public companies that are unblemished by restatements or allegations of impropriety. That doesnt even include hundreds of thousands of audits of privately held companies and government and not-for-profit institutions that exemplify the highest standards of integrity. Thats the true spirit of the accounting profession, a spirit we must marshal in pursuit of a fair investment climate. We must strive for zero audit defects, knowing full well that a combination of factors will prevent us from ever achieving perfection. But when a failure occurs, we must be unrelenting in ensuring that its weaknesses are not repeated. The president and Congress have taken a significant step. The accounting profession is determined to carry the cause forward. We realize that no single initiative will rebuild investor confidence, that no single magic bullet will put fraud or malfeasance to rest. Months of introspection at the AICPA have brought us to the conclusion that we have six leadership roles to fulfill. All of them require cooperation with other important players, who have jurisdiction in many vital areas. First, the AICPA has a role as a standard setter. While the new Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has broad responsibilities, CPAs have a responsibility to set standards for their own profession, just as professionals do in medicine, engineering and architecture. To ensure that our standard-setting capacity is as robust as possible, the AICPA will make it a priority to obtain greater involvement of the users of financial statements in setting auditing standards. We are developing new guidance regarding an auditors potential dependency on fees from large clients, including discussion with audit committees about potential dependency and expanded rotation requirements for key personnel. The guidance would also consider compensation policies that reward partners primarily based on auditing proficiencies and policies that prevent a firm from penalizing a partner who says “no” at the risk of losing a client. Second, the AICPA has a role as a liaison between market institutions and corporations, jointly shaping programs and policies to guard the interests of investors. Reducing the incidence of financial fraud will require a partnership among auditors, corporate management and all financial professionals, with the goal of achieving an environment of fraud-free financial reporting. We will design antifraud criteria and controls intended for public corporations, targeted for introduction next June. We invite corporate America to work with us. We are calling on the Auditing Standards Board to enhance our existing attestation standard for CPAs to test and report on client antifraud controls and programs and to develop ways to communicate the results to the public. We will be sponsoring a summit, before the end of this year, of financial executives, corporate directors, audit committees, stock exchanges, analysts and regulators to identify new antifraud initiatives and collaborate in implementing them. Third, the AICPA has a research role. Academic research can provide new insights into the who, what, when, where and why of corporate fraud. These insights will improve corporate-fraud-prevention controls, strengthen undergraduate education and enhance audit procedures to detect fraud. Today, I am pleased to announce that the AICPA, the University of Texas at Austin and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners are jointly establishing an Institute for Fraud Studies. We call upon leaders in corporate America and CPA firms to participate in this initiative. We are committed to incorporating the research results into the task of standard setting. One of the outcomes must be improved investor education. For that reason, one of the first research projects will be to study how investors can help protect themselves against fraud. Fourth, the AICPA has an educational role. We are developing training programs aimed at combating fraud. We will initiate discussions with the American Accounting Association, the Federation of Schools of Accountancy, chairpersons of university accounting programs and college textbook publishers aimed at promptly incorporating fraud prevention materials into the accounting curriculum and university textbooks. This will give students the knowledge and skills to understand the fundamental characteristics of fraud, identify factors that may indicate it exists and acquire enhanced interviewing techniques. The AICPA will work with academic institutions to develop appropriate materials, targeted for inclusion in college courses in the fall of next year. We further believe all members of the AICPA should commit more time to continuing education in the area of fraud detection. While considerable ongoing professional education is required to maintain professional standards, we are calling on audit and finance professionals dealing with public companies to commit at least 10 percent of their continuing education to the area of fraud detection. We are urging stock exchanges to mandate effective antifraud training for all members of management, boards of directors and audit committees. As a public service, by the end of this year, we will develop and make available, free of charge, training programs focusing on the roles and responsibilities of management and those in corporate governance. Fifth, the AICPA has a role to play in advancing the level of financial reporting. Achieving more transparent financial reporting is central to ensuring fair markets and restoring investor confidence. We are eager to pursue this goal in concert with FASB and with leading corporate organizations. We seek to work with all interested parties, but we are prepared to move forward on our own if necessary. One of our first steps is to initiate a debate within the accounting community on how to differentiate between the needs of widely held and privately held businesses, and how to reform GAAP to reflect this reality. Given the media focus on public companies, its easy to lose sight of both the importance of small business and its unique reporting needs. As a first step in addressing this, the AICPA is asking all of our committees and those of state societies that deal with small-company issues to put this high on their agendas. Feedback is due by the first quarter of next year. We will work with FASB to ensure an improved reporting model is built that will provide investors with higher-quality informationaddressing such issues as off-balance-sheet activity, liquidity, financial performance indicators and unreported intangibles. In addition, were working with the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants to lead the way in updating the reporting model. Weve jointly developed the Value Measurement and Reporting Collaborative, which brings together stakeholders in the financial reporting process from around the world to determine the best methodologies for value measurements and reporting. This will enable investors to see more information about what makes a company successful. It will also help boards of directors and senior management to make better strategic decisions. We fully support the SECs current proposal to expand and enhance the disclosure of estimates and accounting policies. When the new rules are finalized, we will provide our members with tools to implement it. The additional disclosures should be included either as part of the financial statement disclosures or as part of managements discussion and analysis (MD&A). And we fully support the auditors examination of MD&A. As well, the Auditing Standards Board is seeking input from users of financial information as to other types of information that should be communicated by the auditor. Sixth, the AICPA has a role in promoting strong corporate governance and internal control systems. A public companys ability to withstand pressures to provide false information to the public depends largely on those factors. For that reason, we are calling on the Auditing Standards Board to revise existing internal controls and reporting standards so that the public will be put on notice when the auditor communicates internal control weaknesses to the audit committee. Situations that will be considered as constituting reportable conditions will include one individual holding the dual positions of chairman of the board and CEO or an audit committee that is not fulfilling its mission. It may include lack of mandatory antifraud education or lack of a code of conduct. In fulfilling all of these roles, the AICPA has an overriding mission: to shape an accounting culture for the future that surpasses the legacy of our past. Over the past few months, certainly one good thing has occurred: The importance of the audit has been reaffirmed loud and clear. Now, we must build on its core value. The AICPA will be both a watchdog and a source of leadership. We pledge to be a force for raising new issues and examining issues that are raised by others. We will serve as common ground for all in the profession and those involved in the financial reporting process to bring their concerns and proposals. To be certain, none of usauditors, corporations or investorswill look back fondly on this year. But the 350,000 members of the AICPA are concentrating on looking forward. Were looking forward to implementing the fundamental reforms enacted by Congress. Were looking forward to working with lawmakers, corporations and the public to implement new reforms as necessary and to rebuilding the faith of investors in the audited financial statement as an open window into publicly traded companies. Were looking forward to reclaiming our professions heritage as a bedrock of business integrity and continuing our historic role as trusted advisers to businesses of all sizes and protectors of the public interest. It will not be easy. But we are committed to it. We are committed to moving forward. We will rebuild trust in our profession brick by brick.Source: Barry CMelanconA New Accounting CultureJJournal of Accountancy，2002.35-39.譯文：一種新的會(huì)計(jì)文化不管多么小的少數(shù)派所造成的問(wèn)題，在會(huì)計(jì)行業(yè)的我們都正在努力解決這些問(wèn)題。首先，最近我們?cè)S多在“創(chuàng)造方面的頒獎(jiǎng)”的改革想法受到法律的保護(hù)。我們?yōu)槎聲?huì)提出以監(jiān)督上市公司的審計(jì)師的建議，這個(gè)建議是讓上市公司會(huì)計(jì)監(jiān)督委員會(huì)逐步形成。我們要求之一，審計(jì)人員按董事會(huì)的審計(jì)委員會(huì)的要求聘請(qǐng)，而不是按管理的要求。我們通過(guò)商議兩個(gè)重要的領(lǐng)域來(lái)、同意禁止這些審計(jì)機(jī)構(gòu)對(duì)公眾公司的審計(jì)：金融系統(tǒng)設(shè)計(jì)和實(shí)施，以及內(nèi)部審計(jì)外包。此外，針對(duì)所有的改革可以進(jìn)行衡量，我們建立了公共利益測(cè)試： 1它能否幫助投資者作出明智的投資決定？2它能否提高審計(jì)質(zhì)量和財(cái)務(wù)報(bào)告的質(zhì)量？3它能否幫助恢復(fù)對(duì)資本市場(chǎng)的信心，我們國(guó)家的財(cái)務(wù)報(bào)表制度和會(huì)計(jì)專(zhuān)業(yè)？4是不是有利于美國(guó)金融市場(chǎng)和經(jīng)濟(jì)的增長(zhǎng)？但我們已經(jīng)超越我們所觀察的法律。我們已經(jīng)在美國(guó)注冊(cè)會(huì)計(jì)師協(xié)會(huì)出問(wèn)題的原因和彌補(bǔ)措施上進(jìn)行了長(zhǎng)期和認(rèn)真的反省。不要有任何疑問(wèn)：成百上千的CPA成員每天都在說(shuō)不。不意味著通過(guò)拒絕不健全的公司會(huì)計(jì)準(zhǔn)則來(lái)保護(hù)大眾利益；不意味著減少的欺騙和欺詐風(fēng)險(xiǎn)；“不”意味著確保經(jīng)審計(jì)的報(bào)表不僅是準(zhǔn)確的，但啟發(fā)性；“不”意味著質(zhì)疑和挑戰(zhàn)性的管理。當(dāng)合理的時(shí)候，它就意味著拒絕管理層的會(huì)計(jì)決策。說(shuō)“不”意味著為了保護(hù)公眾利益說(shuō)“是”。只有當(dāng)審計(jì)人員做好充分準(zhǔn)備說(shuō)“不”，那么投資者才會(huì)作好充分準(zhǔn)備說(shuō)“是的”?！安弧辈⒉豢偸呛苋菀椎卣f(shuō)。但是，在我們的行業(yè)近期重點(diǎn)是審計(jì)人員每天說(shuō)“不”的這個(gè)事實(shí)被掩蓋了。這些事情很少見(jiàn)光，因?yàn)橐粋€(gè)審計(jì)員有高于顧客的權(quán)利去做正確的事情。每一天，審計(jì)人員都在告訴一個(gè)企業(yè)高管必須披露什么，為什么一個(gè)項(xiàng)目不能被視為以某種方式，或者為什么一個(gè)特定的活動(dòng)必須在資產(chǎn)負(fù)債表所示。每年美國(guó)注冊(cè)會(huì)計(jì)師協(xié)會(huì)的成員要共同地處理17000 起那些被聲稱(chēng)或者宣布有不正當(dāng)行為的公司是清白的審計(jì)。這還不包括對(duì)私人持有的公司、政府和那些以誠(chéng)信為最高標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的不以營(yíng)利為目的的機(jī)構(gòu)。這是會(huì)計(jì)專(zhuān)業(yè)的真正精神，一種我們必須要以追求公平投資環(huán)境為目的的精神。我們一定要爭(zhēng)取零的審計(jì)缺陷，并且充分認(rèn)識(shí)到多種因素的結(jié)合將阻止我們不斷實(shí)現(xiàn)完美。但是，當(dāng)發(fā)生故障時(shí)，我們必須堅(jiān)定不移，確保其缺點(diǎn)是不能重復(fù)。布什總統(tǒng)和國(guó)會(huì)采取了重要的一步。會(huì)計(jì)界有決心將事業(yè)進(jìn)行到底。我們認(rèn)識(shí)到，沒(méi)有一個(gè)單一的計(jì)劃將重建投資者的信心，沒(méi)有單一的魔術(shù)彈能夠停止欺騙和不正當(dāng)行為。在美國(guó)注冊(cè)會(huì)計(jì)師協(xié)反思的幾個(gè)月中，他們會(huì)給我們帶來(lái)了這樣的結(jié)論：我們有六個(gè)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)職責(zé)需要去完成。他們都需要與那些在許多重要領(lǐng)域擁有管轄權(quán)的重要人員合作。首先，美國(guó)注冊(cè)會(huì)計(jì)師協(xié)會(huì)已成為一個(gè)作為標(biāo)準(zhǔn)制定者的角色。雖然新的上市公司會(huì)計(jì)監(jiān)督委員會(huì)具有廣泛的責(zé)任，注冊(cè)會(huì)計(jì)師有責(zé)任為他們自己的行業(yè)建立標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，就像在專(zhuān)業(yè)人士做醫(yī)療、土木工程及建筑。1為了確保我們的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)制定的能力是強(qiáng)大的是有可能，美國(guó)注冊(cè)會(huì)計(jì)師協(xié)會(huì)將使它在取得更大的審計(jì)準(zhǔn)則制定的財(cái)務(wù)報(bào)表使用者的參與方面成為一個(gè)優(yōu)勢(shì)。2我們正在開(kāi)發(fā)一個(gè)關(guān)于審計(jì)師從大客戶(hù)身上得到的潛在費(fèi)用的新的指導(dǎo)意見(jiàn)，這包括審計(jì)委員會(huì)討論潛在的依賴(lài)和擴(kuò)大對(duì)關(guān)鍵人員的輪換要求。該指南還將考慮補(bǔ)償政策，主要是基于審計(jì)熟練程度和政策，公司應(yīng)該獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)而不是懲罰一個(gè)為了控制風(fēng)險(xiǎn)拒絕業(yè)務(wù)，而導(dǎo)致失去客戶(hù)的合作伙伴。其次，美國(guó)注冊(cè)會(huì)計(jì)師協(xié)會(huì)有作為一家市場(chǎng)機(jī)構(gòu)和企業(yè)之間的聯(lián)絡(luò)作用，要共同塑造方案和政策，以保衛(wèi)投資者的利益。在減少金融欺詐的發(fā)生方面，將需要在審計(jì)人員、企業(yè)管理及所有財(cái)務(wù)專(zhuān)業(yè)人士之間的建立伙伴關(guān)系，以實(shí)現(xiàn)一個(gè)無(wú)欺詐財(cái)務(wù)報(bào)告目標(biāo)。1我們將設(shè)計(jì)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)和反欺詐準(zhǔn)則并與明年六月有針對(duì)性的引進(jìn)，用于控制公共機(jī)構(gòu)。我們邀請(qǐng)美國(guó)公司與我們合作。我們呼吁審計(jì)準(zhǔn)則委員會(huì)來(lái)加強(qiáng)我們對(duì)會(huì)計(jì)師事務(wù)所進(jìn)行測(cè)試的現(xiàn)有的認(rèn)證標(biāo)準(zhǔn)和對(duì)客戶(hù)反欺詐控制的報(bào)告及方案，并且向社會(huì)公布溝通的結(jié)果。2在本年底，我們將贊助舉行財(cái)務(wù)主管，公司董事，審計(jì)委員會(huì)，證券交易所，分析師和監(jiān)管的首腦會(huì)議，以確定新的反欺詐行動(dòng)和合作執(zhí)行這些建議。第三，美國(guó)注冊(cè)會(huì)計(jì)師協(xié)會(huì)有一個(gè)研究的作用。學(xué)術(shù)研究可以在誰(shuí)、何時(shí)、何地以及為什么進(jìn)行企業(yè)欺詐行為方面提供新的見(jiàn)解。這些見(jiàn)解將改善公司欺詐的預(yù)防控制，加強(qiáng)本科教育，和加強(qiáng)審計(jì)程序以發(fā)現(xiàn)舞弊。今天，我很高興地宣布，美國(guó)注冊(cè)會(huì)計(jì)師協(xié)會(huì)，在奧斯汀的得克薩斯大學(xué)和注冊(cè)舞弊審計(jì)師協(xié)會(huì)共同建立一個(gè)欺詐研究所。我們呼吁美國(guó)企業(yè)和會(huì)計(jì)師事務(wù)所的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人參加這一倡議。我們致力于將研究成果納入標(biāo)準(zhǔn)工作的制定。其中的結(jié)果之一，必須是提高投資者的教育程度。出于這個(gè)原因，研究項(xiàng)目首先是要研究如何幫助保護(hù)投資者自己免受欺詐。第四，美國(guó)注冊(cè)會(huì)計(jì)師協(xié)會(huì)有教育作用。我們正在制定培訓(xùn)計(jì)劃，旨在打擊欺詐。1我們會(huì)主動(dòng)與美國(guó)會(huì)計(jì)協(xié)會(huì)、會(huì)計(jì)學(xué)校聯(lián)會(huì)討論，大學(xué)會(huì)計(jì)課程的主要人員和學(xué)院的會(huì)計(jì)課程教科書(shū)出版商，旨在及時(shí)將欺詐預(yù)防材料納入會(huì)計(jì)課程和大學(xué)教科書(shū)。這會(huì)給學(xué)生了解詐騙的基本特點(diǎn)，可能表明它的存在的確定因素的相關(guān)知識(shí)和獲得提高面試技巧。美國(guó)注冊(cè)會(huì)計(jì)師協(xié)會(huì)將與學(xué)術(shù)機(jī)構(gòu)共同開(kāi)發(fā)合適的材料，在明年秋天有針對(duì)性的列入大學(xué)課程中。2我們還相信